Thursday, October 15, 2009

Mr Frenchie and I both agree that our last day in Vermont was the BEST day of our honeymoon.

When we knew we'd be starting and ending our honeymoon in Vermont, Mr Frenchie tried to find a way for us boat around Lake Champlain... in hopes of seeing Champ. Sea Monsters have been an inside joke between Mr Frenchie and I since we started dating and the Vermont Uhaul seems to follow us wherever we go.

Mr Frenchie found a Lake cruise called The Spirit of Ethan Allen III. We took the "Lunch-On-The-Lake Cruise" - a 1 1/2 Hour Narrated Cruise with Buffet. Mr Frenchie LOVES buffets!

And Bloody Maries (Marys? What is the plural for that?). It was a gorgeous day and we saw and learned at lot about Lake Champlain.

Like, do you know the whole lake freezes over in the winter? YEP, so much so that you can drive on it to go ice fishing! I wouldn't recommend that though, according to our tour guild if your car falls in the lake the State of Vermont gives you one day to get it out or they do it for you and send you the bill. Plus, that kind of thing is NOT covered by car insurance companies.

Sadly, we didn't see Champ. Although, The Spirit of Ethan Allen did see him back in 1984, we think it was too bright outside for Champ that day.

Next we drove over to Shelburne Vineyard. The vineyard had recently re-located to a new building, so new that they were still planting new vines out front.

Having been wine tasting in Napa, Temecula and Rancho Bernardo I wasn't expecting to be tasting alone. It was, however, a Wednesday, so that could explain why we had the whole winery to ourselves. If I remember correctly we sampled about 9 wines, including my first ice wine. I'm sure you can imagine, I don't see too much ice in Orange County, CA, so ice wine isn't very common.This is the last picture I have of our trip in Vermont because my battery died. Mr Frenchie was able to turn the camera on long enough to grab a shot of me in front of the winery and then it died.

Since I lack photographic evidence you will have to believe when I tell you when went to Shelburne Farms last for Cheese tasting. It happened I promise! We even bought some yummy mustard!

Our trip attitude immediately started to change the moment we saw the US border.

We decided to enter in on the New York City of Lake Champlain, drive down the islands in the middle and then over to Burlington.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, we LOVE Vermont. These islands were completely charming.

We plan on coming back here in a couple years to say on an Inn with Adirondack chairs on the lake and go kayaking.

Doesn't that sound relaxing and fun?

Fun side story: We stopped just inside the border at the first gas station we found, obviously to get gas. Went inside to "Put $10 on pump 3" and the lady behind the counter said, "Is it not working? Did you lift the handle?" In California, you have to pay before you pump, in Vermont you pump and then pay! That was really hard to get used to, we felt like we were stealing, even though we fully intended to pay right after. Also, Mr Frenchie couldn't get over the choices of unleaded gas.

Once we were in Burlington again we checked into another Marriott, in Williston. This hotel was night and day compared to the last one. The lady at the front desk was so pleasant, our room had a king bed, it was awesome.

We freshened up in the room a bit, planned out everything we were going to squeeze into our final full honeymoon day (the next day) and went to dinner. Mr Frenchie and I still talk about the dinner we had that night, and it was the dinner we had the whole trip. The Vermont Brewery & Pub is tast-eee!

As you can see Sheldon helped, but I'd say Mr Frenchie and I split this pretty evenly. I did drink the fruitier beers, but it was still beer goshdarnit! And, when our waitress forgot to put our order in and offered us a free pint each, I drank mine. Have I had a beer since? No, but I've had sips of Mr Frenchie's beers and they just don't taste as good.

Moving on to the "and this is the food we ate"* portion of this post...

I still cannot believe we ate all of that, plus onion rings AND beer! Oink, Oink!

*Mr Frenchie always makes fun of me and says, "and this is the food we ate" every time I take pictures of our food. He just doesn't understand that the hive wants to know what we ate!

Up Next: Our last day :(

Did you eat/drink something on your honeymoon you would normally never touch?